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Oriism
The Church of Oria is a religion that originated only about 1,500 years ago, although its roots go much further back. It can be thought of as a sort of natural response to The Sundering. People were exposed to the wrath of Oria, and his place at the forefront of religion returned as a result. Organized religion fell into disarray after the Sundering, and it took about 500 years for the pieces to be put back together. From the remains of ancient eordic religion came much of Oriism, although elvish and orc influence can be felt as well. A larger influence was surprisingly the now gone altomines and their sister civilization (perhaps the same civilization) the Ancient Orians. By 500 CE, the Altomines and Orians had been long gone, and their few leftover artifacts, ruins, and texts, had developed a cult of interest. Altomines came to be remembered as the Golden Race (a term found within ancient Altomine texts themselves), and for a period of time many of their ideas were copied. One such concept was that Oria stood above all other gods as the creator, and not just the god of light. This idea permeated and mutated until Oria was seen as the one true god, and the other physical gods were only his servants. In opposition to Oria evolved the concept of Umbris. Interestingly, Umbris as an evil entity is non-existent in Alto/Orian myth. The altomine Umbris was the god of night and the judge of souls, but he was not evil. He was stern, somber, and at times cruel and unusual, but in the dramatic and chaotic world of altomine mythology, he was perhaps even a “good guy”. This is why it is thought that the Church of Oria version of Umbris is actually a combination of altomine Umbris and eordic Feascinn. Umbris retained the penchant for judging souls using cruel and unusual means, but took on Feascinn’s chaotic, destructive evil. Umbris became much more of a devil. With the cutting down of religion from an entire pantheon of gods to just two, one good one evil, came a shift in how worship worked. In Orian religion, Oria is the only god to worship. Most worship is done via good deeds, mercy, tithes, etc. A good life allows a person to ascend to Orlen with Oria. Those who do not have souls light enough to ascend are pulled deep into the Umbra by Umbris. Many tales have been told of what Orlen is truly like. It is said by most that since its ascension, Oria turned Orlen into a paradise of plentiful food, golden cities, and rivers of wine. Some believe that Orlen isn’t really on this plane at all anymore, and is in some sort of other world. No two people will give the exact same description of Orlen, and some say that it changes based on what you desire. Meanwhile tales of the deep Umbra describe a place of perpetual night, with the only light coming from lightning and fire. Despite these events, the land is said to be ice cold. There, infidels and evil men and women are tortured daily by Umbris and his minions. Many children’s books go into grisly detail as to exactly what the tortures are for different sins. The Church of Oria has long wrestled with the question of the cause of Oria’s wrath during the Sundering. Oria became unhappy with the people, and so the general consensus was that Oria hated war. However, many wars have since occurred with no further repercussions, and so people began looking for an alternate explanation. One such explanation was that at the end of the Ancient Era, races began intermingling. It was concluded that Oria had initially split the 5 colors of magic on purpose, and preferred for them to stay split. Recent theologists of Oria have posited that the mixing of blood itself may be a particularly large sin as it corrupts Oria’s split colors. Despite the fact that many Emporia City elite are half-bloods, the Church began to grow more and more hostile to half-bloods. This culminated with The Purge instigated by the Orian Church Theocracy. Category:Religions